Books I've actually finished lately: 65

Why did the garbage have to be personally delivered to the Dumpster at the moment the truck arrived? I don't know, but Old Uzbek does have one hundred different words for crying.

- Elif Batuman

Kafka was a wet-pants

Kafka refused to put a picture of an insect on the cover of Metamorphosis.

- Elif Batuman, LRB

Adventures with Mother

Toward the end of one lesson for example, [Maxim] told me that he had to leave ten minutes early - and then proceeded to spend the entire ten minutes unravelling the tortuous logic of how his early departure wasn't actually depriving me of any violin instruction.

- Elif Batuman, The Possessed: Adventure with Russian Books

Last night I had a similar experience with my mother, who told me that I didn't have time to go for a run because dinner was 'very nearly ready'. We debated the matter for at least ten minutes, and then I went out anyway and ran very fast. Dinner was served 30 minutes after I got out of the shower.